Time to upgrade my electronics from my old Low. I'm stuck between Hummingbird and Lowrance, all the features I need are SI, DI, NAV, HDI. I here different stuff from different folks, at one point I was sold on the Humm until a buds had to go to the shop and another bud had his Low tuned in by a guy who went to school for the both companies and he said stay away from Humm, what gives?

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'A veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his, or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to The 'United States of America', for an amount of 'up to and including ones life.' (Author unknown)

I haven't had my boat in 2 years so I am sure there has been a few changes in the products...lol..however I started out with hummingbird, I think a 997 and 858. They were good but when I switched to low range it was a whole new world. To me there is no comparison, the image on a lowrance was hands down better.

Here is what I would do. Get an 1199 if u can find the closeout ones for around 1250.00 If not get an 899SI. THEN get the side imaging transducer AND a dedicated down image transducer and switchover box from humminbird. They will know what your after when you call. Then, you get the best of both worlds, great side imaging, and the ability to switch transducers to a down image transducer with the flip of a switch. Both transducers will go to the console unit . This is what Lowrance does with the dedicated DI transducer, but they use the LSS for the side scan.. Its all the same, just different ways to get there. Then put either another 899 up front or an elite 5dsi or elite 7X.. The 7x doesnt have GPS And is cheaper.

Edited by leanin post (10/08/1507:42 PM)

_________________________
JESUS CHRIST IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH. AND THE LIGHT. !!!! PUT ALL YOUR TROUBLES IN JESUS HANDS, YOU WILL SEE WHAT HE CAN DO.

_________________________
'A veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his, or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to The 'United States of America', for an amount of 'up to and including ones life.' (Author unknown)

I read allot about this before buying the Humminbird 1199 at the beginning of this year. My grief with Lowrance was buying a bunch of pieces and trying to make them work together. To me, water and connections on a boat don' t mix very well over time. The other problem I read about with Lowrance was there was no support for their older products.

Onix was above my budget, so I went with the discounted 1199. Humminbird (from what I read) has better Side Imaging and Lowrance has better Down Imaging. I mounted my transducer on the trolling motor and scan while trolling with a Minnkota Fortrex 80 lb. trolling motor. I set the SI to 50', 60' on each side and it is pretty easy to circle back and find anything I see while trolling.

Good Luck with your choice!

Edited by Spiderman (10/09/1509:20 AM)

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Here is what I would do. Get an 1199 if u can find the closeout ones for around 1250.00 If not get an 899SI. THEN get the side imaging transducer AND a dedicated down image transducer and switchover box from humminbird. They will know what your after when you call. Then, you get the best of both worlds, great side imaging, and the ability to switch transducers to a down image transducer with the flip of a switch. Both transducers will go to the console unit . This is what Lowrance does with the dedicated DI transducer, but they use the LSS for the side scan.. Its all the same, just different ways to get there. Then put either another 899 up front or an elite 5dsi or elite 7X.. The 7x doesnt have GPS And is cheaper.

This seems like the right thing to do, however, if you get the 1199 you will still only have one side imaging crystal and the down image will still be made by a computer smashing two side images together, regardless of how many transducers you have. So it won't be near as good as something that has a dedicated down imaging crystal.The only humminbird unit with a side imaging crystal AND a dedicated down imaging crystal is the onyx. Or you could go with lowrance and have 2 crystals as well. Don't get me wrong, I love humminbird. It really just depends on your application... What are you fishing for and where?

I personally use both. I am mainly a crappie fisherman. Sure, I fish for other species from time to time but 90% I fish for crappie. Because of this I want a big ol' screen at the console so I can see side, down, sonar and chart so I can find them. I use a HDS-12 at the console and it does everything I need it to. If I didn't have HDS-12, I would also love a onyx-10. Both are great units and have thier good and not so good things about them.

At the bow however, I only want down imaging and maybe sonar from time to time. I don't need side imaging in the front, it doesn't work well on a trolling motor anyway. All I want to do is to be able to see a good image of my brush pile. So I use a humminbird 959 up front. Dedicated down imaging crystal. Great image. Cheap price. Get it from David at shut-up-and-fish. Good people and will go the extra mile to take care of you. And he has really nice power cables to run it too.

Next time you're at bass pro or cabelas look at the 899, and the 859 side by side. Put them both in down imaging. Notice the difference in detail you get between them. In my opinion the 59 series is the one to have on the front since side imaging isn't needed up there, at least for my kind of fishing.

Here is what I would do. Get an 1199 if u can find the closeout ones for around 1250.00 If not get an 899SI. THEN get the side imaging transducer AND a dedicated down image transducer and switchover box from humminbird. They will know what your after when you call. Then, you get the best of both worlds, great side imaging, and the ability to switch transducers to a down image transducer with the flip of a switch. Both transducers will go to the console unit . This is what Lowrance does with the dedicated DI transducer, but they use the LSS for the side scan.. Its all the same, just different ways to get there. Then put either another 899 up front or an elite 5dsi or elite 7X.. The 7x doesnt have GPS And is cheaper.

This seems like the right thing to do, however, if you get the 1199 you will still only have one side imaging crystal and the down image will still be made by a computer smashing two side images together, regardless of how many transducers you have. So it won't be near as good as something that has a dedicated down imaging crystal.The only humminbird unit with a side imaging crystal AND a dedicated down imaging crystal is the onyx. Or you could go with lowrance and have 2 crystals as well. Don't get me wrong, I love humminbird. It really just depends on your application... What are you fishing for and where?

I personally use both. I am mainly a crappie fisherman. Sure, I fish for other species from time to time but 90% I fish for crappie. Because of this I want a big ol' screen at the console so I can see side, down, sonar and chart so I can find them. I use a HDS-12 at the console and it does everything I need it to. If I didn't have HDS-12, I would also love a onyx-10. Both are great units and have thier good and not so good things about them.

At the bow however, I only want down imaging and maybe sonar from time to time. I don't need side imaging in the front, it doesn't work well on a trolling motor anyway. All I want to do is to be able to see a good image of my brush pile. So I use a humminbird 959 up front. Dedicated down imaging crystal. Great image. Cheap price. Get it from David at shut-up-and-fish. Good people and will go the extra mile to take care of you. And he has really nice power cables to run it too.

Next time you're at bass pro or cabelas look at the 899, and the 859 side by side. Put them both in down imaging. Notice the difference in detail you get between them. In my opinion the 59 series is the one to have on the front since side imaging isn't needed up there, at least for my kind of fishing.

You can't go wrong with either one though in my opinion.

This is not correct.. if you go to the humminbird website and do some research you will find that the transducer used on the dedicated down image units, will work on the 899 999 and 1199 series. You must use a switchbox to switch between the side image transducer and dedicated down image transducerIt is in fact the same DOWN IMAGING transducer used on the dedicated down scan units. It is not widely advertised because of course, they want to sell thier dedicated DI units.

Can I use the Down Imaging transducer with my Side Imaging Unit?

If you own one of our high definition side imaging products you can use a down imaging transducer with it to improve your down imaging readings. High definition side imaging products are only available in our 800 / 900 / 1100 / ONIX Series of products.

You will get readings if DI width is set to wide (this is the default). If you change to narrow, you will get no readings.

Your 2D readings will not be as good because the 2D element in the DI transducer is smaller; therefore, weaker than the 2D element in the SI transducer

You will not get any SI views that are correct.

It is best to use this DI transducer in conjunction with a transducer switch so that you can alternate between the DI imaging transducer and the SI transducer when viewing specific SI and 2D views.

Edited by leanin post (10/10/1507:00 PM)

_________________________
JESUS CHRIST IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH. AND THE LIGHT. !!!! PUT ALL YOUR TROUBLES IN JESUS HANDS, YOU WILL SEE WHAT HE CAN DO.